The theory is that this dectrine has always existed-that isto say, has been excogitated in the consciousness of anelect minority; that it has been perpetuated in secrecy fromone to another and has been recorded in secret literatures,like those of Alchemy and Kabalism; that it is containedalso in those Instituted Mysteries of which Rosicrucianismoffers an example near to our hand in the past, and CraftMasonry a living summary, of general memorial, for those whocan interpret its real meaning.

Behind the Secret Doctrine it is held that there is anexperience or practice by which the Doctrine is justified.It is obvious that in a handbook like the present I can dolittle more than state the, claims, which, however, havebeen discussed at length in several of my other writings,while it is designed to treat two of its more importantphases in books devoted to the Secret Tradition inFreemasonry and in Hermetic literature.

As regards Tarot claims, it should be remembered that someconsiderable part of the imputed Secret Doctrine has beenpresented in the pictorial emblems of Alchemy, so that theimputed Book Of Thoth is in no sense a solitary device ofthis emblematic kind. Now, Alchemy had two branches, as Ihave explained fully elsewhere, and the pictorial emblemswhich I have mentioned are common to both divisions.

Its material side is represented in the strange symbolismof the Mutus Libex, printed in the great foliosof Mangetus. There the process for the performance of thegreat work of transmutation is depicted in fourteen copper-plate engravings, which exhibit the different stages of thematter in the various chemical vessels. Above these vesselsthere are mythological, planetary, solar and lunar symbols,as if the powers and virtues which-according to Hermeticteaching-preside over the development and perfection of themetallic kingdom were intervening actively to assist the twooperators who are toiling below. The operators-curiouslyenough-are male and female. The spiritual side of Alchemy isset forth in the much stranger emblems of the Book OfLambspring, and of this I have already given a preliminaryinterpretation, to which the reader may be referred.* Thetract contains the mystery of what is called the mystical orarch-natural elixir, being the marriage of the soul and thespirit in the body of the adept philosopher and thetransmutation of the body as the physical result of thismarriage. I have never met with more curious intimationsthan in this one little work. It may be mentioned as a pointof fact that both tracts are very much later in time thanthe latest date that could be assigned to the generaldistribution of Tarot cards in Europe by the most drasticform of criticism. They belong respectively to the end ofthe seventeenth and sixteenth centuries. As I am not drawinghere on the font of imagination to refresh that of fact andexperience, I do not suggest that the Tarot set the exampleof expressing Secret Doctrine in pictures and that it wasfollowed by Hermetic writers; but it is noticeable that itis perhaps the earliest example of this art. It is also themost catholic, because it is not, by attribution orotherwise, a derivative of any one school or literature ofoccultism; it is not of Alchemy or Kabalism or Astrology orCeremonial Magic; but, as I have said, it is thepresentation of universal ideas by means of universal types,and it is in the combination of these types-if anywhere-thatit presents Secret Doctrine.

That combination may, ex hypothesi, reside in the numberedsequence of its series or in their fortuitous assemblage byshuffling, cutting and dealing, as in ordinary games ofchance played with cards. Two writers have adopted the firstview without prejudice to the second, and I shall do well,perhaps, to dispose at once of what they have said. Mr.MacGregor Mathers, who once published a pamphlet on theTarot, which was in the main devoted to fortune-telling,suggested that the twenty-two Trumps Major could beconstructed, following their numerical order, into what hecalled a "connected sentence." It was, in fact, the heads ofa moral thesis on the human will, its enlightenment byscience, represented by the Magician, its manifestation byaction-a significance attributed to the High Priestess-itsrealization (the Empress) in deeds of mercy and beneficence,which qualities were allocated to the Emperor. He spoke alsoin the familiar conventional manner of prudence, fortitude,sacrifice, hope and ultimate happiness. But if this were themessage of the cards, it is certain that there would be noexcuse for publishing them at this day or taking the painsto elucidate them at some length.

In his Tarot Of The Bohemians, a work written with zeal andenthusiasm, sparing no pains of thought or research, withinits particular lines-but unfortunately without real insight-Dr. Papus has given a singularly elaborate scheme of theTrumps Major. It depends, like that of Mr. Mathers, fromtheir numerical sequence, but exhibits their interrelationin the Divine World, the Macrocosm and Microcosm. In thismanner we get, as it were, a spiritual history of man, or ofthe soul coming out from the Eternal, passing into thedarkness of the material body, and returning to the height.I think that the author is here within a measurable distanceof the right track, and his views are to this extentinforming, but his method-in some respects-confuses theissues and the modes and planes of being. The Trumps Majorhave also been treated in the alternative method which Ihave mentioned, and Grand Orient, in his Manual OfCartomancy, under the guise of a mode of transcendentaldivination, has really offered the result of certainillustrative readings of the cards when arranged as theresult of a fortuitous combination by means of shuffling anddealing. The use of divinatory methods, with whatsoeverintention and for whatever purpose, carries with it twosuggestions. It may be thought that the deeper meanings areimputed rather than real, but this is disposed of by thefact of certain cards, like the Magician, the HighPriestess, the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man, the Toweror Maison Dieu, qnd several others, which do not correspondto Conditions of Life, Arts, Sciences, Virtues, or the othersubjects contained in the denaries of the Baldini emblematicfigures.

They are also proof positive that obvious and naturalmoralities cannot explain the sequence. Such cards testifyconcerning themselves after another manner; and although thestate in which I have left the Tarot in respect of itshistorical side is so much the more difficult as it is somuch the more open, they indicate the real subject matterwith which we are concerned. The methods show also thatthe Trumps Major at least have been adapted to fortune-telling rather than belong thereto. The common divinatorymeanings which will be given in the third part are largelyarbitrary attributions, or the product of secondary anduninstructed intuition; or, at the very most, they belong tothe subject on a lower plane, apart from the originalintention. If the Tarot were of fortune-telling in the root-matter thereof, we should have to look in very strangeplaces for the motive which devised it-to Witchcraft and theBlack Sabbath, rather than any Secret Doctrine

The two classes of significance which are attached to theTarot in the superior and inferior worlds, and the fact thatno occult or other writer has attempted to assign anythingbut a divinatory meaning to the Minor Arcana, justify in yetanother manner the hypothesis that the two series do notbelong to one another. It is possible that their marriagewas effected first in the Tarot of Bologna by that Prince ofPisa whom I have mentioned in the first part. It is saidthat his device obtained for him public recognition andreward from the city of his adoption, which would scarcelyhave been possible, even in those fantastic days, for theproduction of a Tarot which only omitted a few of the smallcards; but as we are dealing with a question of fact whichhas to be accounted for somehow, it is conceivable that asensation might have been created by a combination of theminor and gambling cards with the philosophical set, and bythe adaptation of both to a game of chance. Afterwards itwould have been further adapted to that other game of chancewhich is called fortune-telling. It should be understoodhere that I am not denying the possibility of divination,but I take exception as a mystic to the dedications whichbring people into these paths, as if they had any relationto the Mystic Quest.

The Tarot cards which are issued with the small edition ofthe present work, that is to say, with the Key To The Tarot,have been drawn and colored by Miss Pamela Colman Smith, andwill, I think, be regarded as very striking and beautiful,in their design alike and execution. They are reproduced inthe present enlarged edition of the Key as a means ofreference to the text.

They differ in many important respects from the conventionalarchaisms of the past and from the wretched products ofcolpor-tage which now reach us from Italy, and it remainsfor me to justify their variations so far as the symbolismis concerned. That for once in modern times I present a packwhich is the work of an artist does not, I presume, call forapology, even to the people-if any remain among us-who usedto be described and to call themselves "very occult." Ifany one will look at the gorgeous Tarot valet or knave whois emblazoned on one of the page plates of Chatto's FactsAnd Speculations Concerning The History Of Playing Cards, hewill know that Italy in the old days produced some splendidpacks. I could only wish that it had been possible to issuethe restored and rectified cards in the same style and size;such a course would have done fuller justice to the designs,but the result would have proved unmanageable for thosepractical purposes which are connected with cards, and forwhich allowance must be made, whatever my views thereon. Forthe variations in the symbolism by which the designs havebeen affected, I alone am responsible. In respect of theMajor Arcana, they are sure to occasion criticism amongstudents, actual and imputed. I wish therefore to say,within the reserves of courtesy and la haute convenancebelonging to the fellowship of research, that I care nothingutterly for any view that may find expression. There is aSecret Tradition concerning the Tarot, as well as a SecretDoctrine contained therein; I have followed some part of itwithout exceeding the limits which are drawn about mattersof this kind and belong to the laws of honor.

This tradition has two parts, and as one of them has passedinto writing it seems to follow that it may be betrayed atany moment, which will not signify, because the second, as Ihave intimated, has not so passed at present and is held byvery few indeed. The purveyors of spurious copy and thetraffickers in stolen goods may take note of this point, ifthey please. I ask, moreover, to be distinguished from twoor three writers in recent times who have thought fit tohint that they could say a good deal more if they liked, forwe do not speak the same language; but, also from any onewho, now or hereafter, may say that she or he will tell all,because they have only the accidents and not the essentialsnecessary for such disclosure. If I have followed on my partthe counsel of Robert Burns, by keeping something to myselfwhich I "scarcely tell to any," I have still said as much asI can; it is the truth after its own manner, and as much asmay be expected or required in those outer circles where thequalifications of special research cannot be expected.

In regard to the Minor Arcana, they are the first in modernbut not in all times to be accompanied by pictures, inaddition to what is called the "pips"-that is to say, thedevices belonging to the numbers of the various suits. Thesepictures respond to the divinatory meanings, which have beendrawn from many sources. To sum up, therefore, the presentdivision of this key is devoted to the Trumps Major; itelucidates their symbols in respect of the higher intentionand with reference to the designs in the pack. The thirddivision will give the divinatory significance in respect ofthe seventy-eight Tarot cards, and with particular referenceto the designs of the Minor Arcana. It will give, in fine,some modes of use for those who require them, and in thesense of the reason which I have already explained in thepreface. That which hereinafter follows should be taken, forthe purposes of comparison, in connection with the generaldescription of the old Tarot Trumps in the first part. Thereit will be seen that the zero card of the Fool is allocated,as it always is, to the place which makes it equivalent tothe number twenty-one. The arrangement is ridiculous on thesurface, which does not much signify, but it is also wrongon the symbolism, nor does this fare better when it is madeto replace the twenty-second point of the sequence. Etteiilarecognized the difficulties of both attributions, but heonly made bad worse by allocating the Fool to the placewhich is usually occupied by the Ace of Pentacles as thelast of the whole Tarot series.

This rearrangement has been followed by Papus recently in LeTarot Divinatoire, where the confusion is of no consequence,as the findings of fortune-telling depend upon fortuitouspositions and not upon essential place in the generalsequence of cards. I have seen yet another allocation of thezero symbol, which no doubt obtains in certain cases, but itfails on the highest planes and for our present requirementsit would be idle to carry the examination further.